Get connected

Earth Day festivities are hardly behind us before it’s time to mark World Fair Trade Day. Officially May 11, this is another stretchable celebration, with activities taking place from May 4-19.

Here in Bethlehem events will open on Saturday May 4, 10am-3pm, with the annual spring Fair Trade Fair and Marketplace at First United Methodist Church in Delmar (428 Kenwood Ave). This is always an impressive gathering of Fair Trade vendors and non-profit organizations based in the Capital District, selling beautiful crafts from around the world. The quality of the handcrafted items is reason enough to buy, but in addition each comes with a human story – soap made by an AIDS widow in Uganda, a bag sewn by a young woman rescued from the sex-trade in Cambodia, wooden bowls carved by a resident of a Kenyan slum, metalwork by a survivor of the Haiti earthquake. Each purchase makes a difference, and forges a connection with the maker.

Creating connections is a vital element of Fair Trade, as important as ensuring a better price and providing business and community development opportunities for makers and growers. Why? Because if we have a sense of human identification with the people in the developing world who make so much of what we buy and use, we’ll feel more motivated to help eradicate such horrors as garment factory disasters, child labor and modern-day slavery. Acknowledging the problems that our fellow humans face is the first step towards eliminating those problems and making a better world for all.

This year there is an opportunity to make a truly personal connection with a Fair Trade artisan. Organizers of the Fair Trade Fair are delighted to be welcoming Gloria Chonay from Guatemala to the event. Gloria is a skilled basket-maker and craft cooperative leader with the FT organization Mayan Hands, and she is visiting the Northeast this spring with Fair Trade Towns and Universities USA. Visitors to the Fair Trade Fair in Delmar are invited to come and meet Gloria and learn about her life in a traditional Mayan village. Gloria should be arriving around noon.

Come, shop, learn – and make connections!

More information on how Bethlehem is celebrating World Fair Trade Day will be posted soon.